‘Dumb and Dumber’ Director: We’re F***ing Starving for R-Rated Comedies

It’s one of Hollywood’s most dramatic transformations … ever.

Peter Farrelly, who teamed with brother Bobby to direct “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Shallow Hal” and “Kingpin,” dropped the shtick for 2018’s “Green Book.”

The race-based drama featured the unlikely bond between a black musician (Mahershala Ali) and his bigoted driver (Viggo Mortensen).

And Farrelly won a Best Picture Oscar for his troubles.

Now, Farrelly is back with “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” another fact-based story set during the 1960s. Zac Efron plays a patriotic man determined to support the U.S. troops in Vietnam by giving them a taste of life back home.

The film sounds as sophomoric as his past efforts, but Efron’s character learns not just the horrors of war but the government spin that set it in motion.

The far-Left Deadline.com interviewed Farrelly about the film, but the site also quizzed him on broader themes. What does the man responsible for so many R-rated comedies think of a genre that has all but disappeared today?

It’s been ages since a film like “The Hangover,” “Step Brothers” or “Bridesmaids” made the nation howl.

And will he pull a Todd Phillips? The “Hangover” director gave up the genre to make 2019’s “Joker,” realizing the woke culture would suffocate any attempts to make us laugh.

Farrelly isn’t ready to give up comedy yet.

RELATED: MORE PROOF WE CRAVE UNCENSORED COMEDY

He’s prepping a new, R-rated romp right now. His upcoming “Ricky Stanicky,” which he hopes will star Efron and John Cena, will be unabashedly R-rated.

The story follows a group of men who blame their misbehaviors on a fictional buddy named, what else, Ricky Stanicky. When pressured by the women in their lives, they hire someone to pretend to be that figure, but things soon spiral out of control.

Why would Farrelly attempt a bawdy, bro-tastic comedy in this day and age?

I think R-rated comedies are going to come back with a vengeance. Very soon, people are going to be f*cking starving for R-rated comedies, and they are already ….That’s the opportunity now for somebody to break out with an R-rated comedy and the whole world is going to see it and they’re going to say, why can’t we have more of this? I miss them.

Farrelly never mentions the “w” word in the conversation. He’s a Hollywood pro who understands when it’s time to ruffle feathers, and when it’s better to be sly. Deadline presses him on those who get offended by comedy today, and his answer is both wise and diplomatic.

I know each group that has a beef with whatever comedy is out there, they have their reasons for having the beef. And I do support all these groups. But there is something about making fun of ourselves, and I miss that, when we could do it and everybody would laugh even though they know that’s about them.

Could “Ricky Stanicky,” which once had James Franco playing the title character, be the comedy smart missile that destroys Woke, Inc.? Farrelly hints that’s his plan.

“I’ve been trying to do [this movie] for 10 years and I think its time has come.”